In top gear: North Pole Toyota HiLux driven

Iceland is not the first place you think of as a hotbed of automotive activity.

The fact that is one of the most remote places on the planet and one with less inhabitants than Canberra certainly puts paid to that.

That it rests on the edge of the Arctic circle also means it is generally frozen solid and covered with snow for most of the year. That it was created by the clashing American and Eurasian tectonic plates also makes it one of the most volatile seismic regions on earth. It genuinely feels like a final frontier, and the monotony of its rugged weather-beaten volcanic landscape – that eerily feels as though it still living and breathing -ensures that Iceland genuinely puts the wild into wilderness.

And to get around this place – from downtown Reykjavik to its black sand beaches, from its horizon-piercing rural highways to its lava fields, and even across its glaciers and climbing its volcanic peaks - requires a pretty unique set of wheels.

Like their viking ancestors, those that can withstand and survive the extreme harshness of its environment are obviously a hardy, resourceful bunch and Emil Grimsson - founder of Arctic Trucks – is one of the them, having created the toughest go-anywhere off-roaders on the planet.

Arctic Trucks is the company which built the Toyota HiLux that Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May drove to the North Pole a couple of years ago.

The company was founded in 1998 when Grimsson was working for Toyota Iceland as its marketing manager. He saw an opportunity to modify the company’s four-wheel drive range – HiLuxes and Prados and the like – to specifically suit Iceland’s unique conditions with big tyres and jacked-up suspension.

They were an instant hit with the locals, and further development over the years saw the cars modified even more by remodelling the basic ladder frame chassis to ensure the suspension geometry, ride quality and basic dynamics were not compromised by the additional ride height and to keep the factory warranty intact.

The Arctic Trucks Toyota HiLux is built for winter survival.

However, internal protocols within Toyota forced Arctic Trucks to breakaway from the official business. Since then, despite the focussed nature of off-roaders specifically developed to handle the extremity of snow driving, Grimsson has succeeded in building a global business with military contracts for the Norwegian and Swedish armies and creating a range of even harder-core 6x6 HiLuxes for use within scientific reasearch stations in Antartica. Not surprisingly, Arctic Trucks has official outposts in most Scandinavian countries as well as Russia and Poland and also even sells into the Middle East, where its customers are more attracted to their monster truck looks rather than their polar-cruising credentials.

Like most aftermarket tuners, Arctic Trucks offers a series of stepping stones in terms of modifications – all of which are centred around tyre size. For starters, customers can choose a 35-, 38- or 44-inch set-up – the larger the tyre, the more capable it is in the snow.

All require serious modifications to the vehicle’s undercarriage. The process starts with Arctic Trucks removing the engine and ladder frame from the body, and then welding additional mounting points to lower the suspension and strengthen the basic chassis. The wheelarches also have to be cut and re-modelled and fitted with big flared guards to ensure the massive tyres aren’t fouled by the body when turning or under compression.

Customers can either opt to keep the standard Toyota shocks and springs or have an aftermarket set-up fitted. In the top-grade HiLux, Arctic Trucks can also replace the leaf-spring rears with a conventional coil-spring system for improved dynamics.

Then, of course, there are myriad of additional options such as nudge bars, spot lights, roll bars, side steps, crawler gears…the list is endless.

Grimsson says the basic starting price is around $40,000 – not including the purchase of the base vehicle – and can extend well into six figures.

What is obvious when you see them – both in pictures and in the metal – is they look like they can go just about anywhere on this planet.

And although we came to Iceland in the middle of summer (where it reached a balmy 14-degree maximum) and didn’t get to sample its ability on snow, we did get well off the beaten track, driving a pair of HiLuxes – one with the standard Toyota suspension and one with Fox shocks and a coil-spring rear-end – and a pair of Prados. All of which rode on the mid-spec 38-inch tyre set-up.

First of all, getting into the cockpit obviously requires a bit more effort than a standard model and once inside there’s nothing to distinguish it from a regular Toyota apart from the commanding view through the windscreen thanks to the extra ride height.

On the road, the Prado we drove first didn’t display any nasty driving habits with the tyres pumped up to 25psi. There’s more vagueness to its steering feel and clearly more lean through the corners, but the ride quality was surprisingly plush and it didn’t feel too floaty over bumps or pitch heavily under brakes.

While you have to be mindful of its compromises in everyday traffic – and it’s definitely not a sports car - you could literally drive it as an regular runabout without any worries.

But it is off the road where Artic Trucks’ modifications really come into their own. With the tyres deflated to just 10psi (they recommend dropping them further to an astonishing 2psi on snow), both the HiLux and Prado effortlessly traversed over some seriously rough terrain, including marching up a steep, rocky hill, through a never-ending series of river crossings, a rutted-out muddy bog and along a picturesque beach.

After half a day behind the wheel traversing one of the most extreme landscapes in the world, it is clear that any of the Arctic Trucks can literally go anywhere you want. And, as Top Gear has proven, they can also be driven places nobody ever though possible.

Who would have thought that a small team of Icelanders could help shape the future of four-wheel drives?